


The Big Boss

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Human, Awkwardness, Boss/Employee Relationship, Crush at First Sight, Dogs, First Dates, Flirting, M/M, Oblivious Simon, Pictures, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-12 14:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12961239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: “I’m...upstairs,” he answered dumbly and scolded himself inwardly because he was usually a lot smoother than this. He didn’t stammer or get flustered. He held hour-long conferences with business partners without ever fumbling with his words.“It this where I’m supposed to say some ‘did it hurt when you fell from heaven’ pick-up line?”Raphael stared at the other man who gaped right back at him, the pink from earlier crawling back into his cheeks not and this time there were no cold temperatures to blame for it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I only wanted to make a new aesthetic but somehow this story started to happen and since I won't get it done today, I decided to just split it into two parts. Just something small and dorky for the dark winter time. I hate not being able to write as much as I used to but I simply don't have any time which is why everything takes ages...
> 
> The other stories will continue as well, I promise! I just don't know when.

 

Raphael raised his eyebrows when a slightly dishevelled guy dropped into the other seat at his table without as much as a greeting. Droplets of water hit the dark wooden surface of the tabletop when the young man tugged the beanie off his head, melting snow glistening in his unruly curls, and he didn’t seem to pay Raphael any mind.

“Usually people ask before taking a seat at someone else’s table,” he finally pointed out after watching the man clean his fogged up glasses for a brief moment and a voice in the back of his head—that sounded awfully similar to Magnus’s—felt the need to comment that the young man was quite gorgeous. A beautiful mess, so to say.

The guy’s head snapped up and his brown eyes widened, apparently only now noticing that the table wasn’t vacant.

“Oh sh—oot. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise—I can leave?” The other stammered, his cheeks now tinged pink from the cold _and_ his obvious embarrassment.

“Every other table is already occupied as well,” Raphael pointed out with a short sweeping gesture towards the rest of the small coffeehouse-like area of the company.

He had never actually spent any time here so far, always kept himself holed up in his office at the top floor, overworking himself to the point of Magnus making it his mission to personally drag him out of the building on most days of the week now. His argument that the owner of a company should be the first to arrive and last to leave never worked with his best friend.

Raphael had to admit this place was nice—of course, he had known that already, having chosen to have this coffee shop in the company for his employees to spend time away from their work—but it still felt odd sitting there like any other person working here.

There was another half-spoken curse from the other man who pushed his fingers through his mussed up hair and the bit his bottom lip before glancing at Raphael from underneath unfairly long lashes.

“Would it be okay for me to sit here?”

Usually, Raphael would chase off whoever decided to invite themselves to sit with him but there was something about this guy that made him oddly curious. He had never been curious about anyone, not outside of work-related issues, so this was a very unfamiliar and unsettling sensation.

“As long as you don’t get on my nerves.” Charming, Raphael. Magnus would slap him over the head for his impeccable social skills if he were around right now.

The other man blinked owlishly at him and Raphael expected the guy to get up again and leave but instead, his lips actually curved into the hint of a grin and then he saluted playfully. “No promises but I will try my best to comply.”

Raphael squinted a little at this odd man before huffing out a breath and reaching for the still steaming cup of coffee in front of him to take a sip and then focus his attention back on his laptop. He may be sitting in the relaxation area but that didn’t mean it would keep Raphael from working and this strange guy wouldn’t distract him from it either.

He could hear the rustling of clothes when the other man slipped off his coat and unwrapped the scarf from his neck. Then there was a mutter of “I’ll go get a coffee, be right back” before the guy got up again and left for a few minutes. Raphael frowned at the other’s retreating back and then to the coat wrapped around the back of the chair opposite to him. There was a messenger bag slung over the back of the chair as well, resting on the seat.

Raphael had already dived back into his work when the other man returned with a cup of coffee but his focus was broken by a chuckle from the other side of the table. A sigh escaped his lips before his fingers stopped moving, their pads gingerly resting against the keys of his laptop while his eyes slowly drifted up towards the other man.

“Sorry,” the guy said sheepishly and then uncurled his hand from the camera that was now sitting in front of him on the table, next to his steaming cup of coffee, to point at Raphael’s cup. “I like your cup.”

Raphael may have forgotten that he had taken his own mug downstairs because the ones here were a lot smaller and he was too used to always drink from this damn thing. Ragnor had gotten him this cup as some kind of joke but it was admittedly pretty fitting. It was a plain white mug with _UGH_ written across it. Raphael had learnt to appreciate it even if he always pretended not to.

“I got it from a friend,” he offered in return, not even sure why he gave away this piece of information. Not that this knowledge was any use to the other but Raphael was a very private person and he didn’t just accidentally tell anyone even such a tiny bit about himself.

The other man smiled at him and then suddenly stuck his hand out, reaching across the table with bright eyes. “I’m Simon, by the way. I know, I’m not supposed to annoy you but it felt rude not to at least introduce myself.”

“Do you always talk this much?”

“You think this is much?”

Raphael blinked at this reply, having expected the guy to shut up in embarrassment instead of grinning like a schoolboy that was coming up with some kind of prank. The other’s—Simon’s hand was still hovering over the table, waiting to be met in a handshake that never followed.

“Raphael,” he finally huffed out after an awkward pause and carefully watched Simon’s reaction. The other tilted his head a little, finally realising his hand would not be accepted and dropped it back in his lap, and then his lips quirked into another hint of a grin.

“Poor fella, sharing your first name with the Big Boss,” Simon commented casually and Raphael wasn’t sure if he should be offended or amused by the fact that this guy clearly didn’t know who was in front of him right now. How could Simon work here and not even know what his boss looked like?

Sure, every branch of the company had their own personnel manager who took care of hiring and interviewing new employees so Raphael didn’t have to take care of this himself but you would expect people to at least take a good look at the homepage where they had photos of everyone at the top of the company’s ‘hierarchy’.

“Yeah, it’s a real tragedy,” Raphael muttered and decided that maybe this could be amusing. He definitely didn’t feel a little too awkward to just reveal the fact that he was the Big Boss, as Simon had put it. They probably wouldn’t run into each other ever again anyway…

“In which department are you?” Raphael heard himself ask, catching himself actually wondering about this.

Simon blinked at him again, then crossed his arms on top of the table, circling them around his cup and camera in the process and leaning forward a little, a genuine smile on his pretty features now.

“IT. I’m kind of a computer nerd,” was the cheerful reply and Simon pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose as if that was proving some kind of point. Raphael had no idea what said point was supposed to be but he chose to graciously ignore that fact.

“So you work in IT but didn’t pay much attention to the company’s website, apparently,” Raphael couldn’t help but comment, despite not even wanting to talk about this whole ‘by the way, I’m your boss’ situation.

“What makes you say that? I did pay attention to it. I had to know shit about this company to get the job, obviously,” Simon replied with a shrug and took a sip of his coffee, thumb brushing along the rim afterwards to stop a droplet of coffee from slipping down the side of the mug.

“You had to know _shit_ about the company? Someone sounds like a highly motivated employee,” Raphael mocked dryly and this should be the moment he revealed his identity in order to fire this oblivious moron but for some reason he didn’t. Couldn’t. There was _something_ about this guy that made him pause and reconsider acting like the douchebag a lot of people tended to make him out to be.

“Yeah, you know”—Simon made some swirling gesture with his hand that made absolutely zero sense—”stuff.”

“Thanks for clearing that up.”

“So, you haven’t told me your department yet,” Simon turned the topic around to Raphael and smiled innocently. The smile did weird things to Raphael’s heart.

“I’m...upstairs,” he answered dumbly and scolded himself inwardly because he was usually a lot smoother than this. He didn’t stammer or get flustered. He held hour-long conferences with business partners without ever fumbling with his words.

“It this where I’m supposed to say some ‘did it hurt when you fell from heaven’ pick-up line?”

Raphael stared at the other man who gaped right back at him, the pink from earlier crawling back into his cheeks not and this time there were no cold temperatures to blame for it.

“I—I didn’t mean—Sorry, my brain-to-mouth filter is a little defective most of the time. All of the time, actually.” Simon made a helpless little sound and for a moment seemed like he was about to bury his face in his palms. He didn’t. Instead, Simon ducked his head and bit his bottom lip, nervous fingers fiddling with the cap of his camera.

They didn’t exchange any more words after that, with Raphael trying to focus back on his work and Simon coughing awkwardly every now and then, drinking the rest of his coffee and then basically jumping out of his chair as soon as he was done.

“Gotta get to work now or my boss might complain to the Big Boss about me,” he joked and Raphael parted his lips, close to finally admitting that this apparently terrible person was _him_ but the words seemed to get stuck on his tongue.

“Did you ever meet the ‘Big Boss’ or why don’t you like him?” Raphael wondered out loud and he definitely didn’t ask because there was a tinge of worry nagging him in the back of his mind that he might actually be such an unlikeable person for whatever reasons.

“Nope but that’s just it. What kind of boss doesn’t even take the time to at least welcome new employees to the company? I’ve started working here two months ago and have never once seen the guy. I bet he’s just some old fart holed up in his office the whole day. Some unsocial workaholic without a life,” Simon shrugged before raising the camera to actually take a quick snapshot of Raphael and then he slipped it back into his messenger bag. “I really gotta run now—see you around sometime.”

Simon waved at him and then he was off in a hurry, skidding to a halt a few meters later to sprint back and grab his coat and scarf from the back of his chair. Then he was gone and Raphael was left staring at the empty mug sitting on the other end of the table.

What had just happened?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned that I'm bad at planning? Guess it'll be three chapters instead of two now :"D

Brown eyes were staring at Raphael, followed by an excited bark and the wagging of a fluffy tail. He had to admit the dog was incredibly adorable and the one flopped over ear only made the pet seem quirkier but there was something decidedly off about this whole scenario: They were in the conference room at the top floor of his company. 

He was due to hold a video conference here in less than half an hour and there was a fluffy, golden-brown dog with its paws resting on top of the large table, tongue lolling out at the side of its mouth. It was staring intently at Raphael who didn’t quite know how to react because a dog was not supposed to even be in the building and they were on the 7th floor.

“Where did you come from?” Raphael heard himself ask and he felt like a complete moron as soon as he said it out loud—how was the dog supposed to answer him?! Talking to an animal was one thing but asking it questions was just incredibly dumb. At least nobody else was around to witness their boss act like a complete idiot, that was a mild consolation but it still didn’t solve his unexpected dog problem.

When he walked around the large conference table toward the dog, it barked at him again and then jumped away from the table to run around to the opposite side of Raphael, bouncing around and then bending down to place its head on its front paws, wagging its tail and basically its whole butt. The dog was clearly in a playful mood and wanted to chase around which made it decidedly more difficult to catch it. At least it seemed completely friendly, tongue still lolling out of its mouth.

“Come on, I need to set up for the conference. I have no idea where you came from but you need to go back there,” Raphael sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger after walking around the table again, with the same result as before—the dog barked, jumped up to run to the opposite side of the table and bent down once more, wagging its fluffy behind happily.

“Lily!!” Raphael finally called towards the open doors to the room and a moment later the footsteps of his assistant came closer before her head poked around the door.

“What is it? Struggling with the set-up again?” The young woman asked teasing and Raphael rolled his eyes at her.

“No, I’m struggling with this over there,” he replied and pointed towards the dog that was standing up against the table again to see who else had shown up now. It barked and tilted its head, causing the one bent ear to flop to the side as well and Lily had the audacity to make a small “ahw” sound.

“Where did that cutie come from?”

“I have no idea but I need it out of the room and generally out of the building! Who dared to bring a dog—” Raphael was interrupted when another voice rang over from the hallway. A voice that sounded oddly familiar but he wasn’t quite able to pinpoint why.

“Lance? Lance!”

The dog barked, tail wagging even faster now and then he bounced around the table and sped out of the room. Raphael squinted a little before following the dog, fully intending to lecture this person on how pets were not allowed in the building—he was pretty sure there was a paragraph about this in the house rules, at least—but when he stepped out into the hallway and saw who stood there with the dog bouncing around their feet, yipping happily, he kind of forgot all about the angry lecture he had been about to start on.

“Simon?!”

The other’s head snapped up and then his eyes widened before he reached up to press a hand against his chest while breathing out in relief.

“Raphael, it’s you! Oh my God, I’m so sorry Lance showed up here. He slipped into the elevator and I searched every floor for him. I almost got a heartattack when I realised he must have ended up on the executive floor. If the Big Boss knew about me bringing my dog here, he would probably have my head and then fire me—or the other way around, I guess you can hardly fire a dead man.”

Raphael blinked, slightly overrun by Simon’s instant babbling while the dog had sat down at his feet, staring happily up at his owner with a still wagging tail. This dog was clearly head over heels for Simon, that much was obvious.

“Please promise me you won’t tell him.” Simon pressed his palms together, staring at Raphael with a pleasing expression from underneath his long lashes and a hopeful little smile on his lips.

“Tell what to whom?” Lily inquired when she stepped into the hallway as well, eyebrows raised in curiosity and there was a hint of amusement playing around the quirked corners of her mouth.

“Uh, hi,” Simon greeted, clearly not having expected someone else to show up, “I’m Simon and I was asking Raphael not to tell the boss that I brought my dog to work. I only do that like...two times a week because my best friend usually stops by my place to take him for walks but she has university early on during Monday’s and Thursdays which means Lance has to come with me because I don’t want him to be alone for that long.”

Lily glanced at Raphael in confusion, clearly not only puzzled by the guy’s ranting but also by the whole ‘don’t tell the boss’ pleads. Fortunately, she didn’t ask the obvious question out loud because Raphael definitely had no time for the discussion that would surely  unleash right now.

“I won’t, don’t worry,” Raphael sighed and for some reason didn’t even have the heart to tell the other man that he should definitely stop bringing his dog to work because it was not allowed.

“Thank you.” Simon’s smile seemed brighter than the sun and he patted his dog’s head gently. “I will make sure Lance doesn’t run off like this again so nobody will be bothered by him, I promise.”

“Your dog’s name is Lance?” Lily asked, clearly more curious about the name than the obvious misunderstanding that was going on here.

“Yeah. Well, it’s his nickname. It’s actually Lancelot.  _ Sir _ Lancelot!”

Raphael was pretty sure the other man was joking but when Simon merely smiled and there was absolutely no hint of amusement in his expression, he figure Simon was actually being serious. So not only did the guy illegally bring his dog to work, the dog was literally named after someone from the Arthurian Legend. Maybe Raphael shouldn’t be too surprised about this…

“Okay, great...I have to get back to work. I have a conference call to set up,” Raphael got back to the important topic that had been interrupted by Simon’s furball and then wondered if his words might have accidentally given away his position as head of the company but Simon clearly chose to stay on the path to oblivion.

“Oh, you better do that. We don’t want the boss to get mad,” Simon grinned and apologised again for Lance’s behaviour before clipping the dog’s leash to its collar and walking towards the elevators. When the doors dinged shut behind both of them, Lily turned around to Raphael in slow-motion, her lips parting to finally ask the expected question.

“How does this guy not know that you’re his boss? And how did he just get away with bringing his dog to the company?”

“I have no idea how to answer either of these questions,” Raphael admitted honestly, sighing, before shaking his head and walking back into the conference room to finally get ready because there wasn’t much time left until the call would start and he hated not being able to mentally prepare himself properly beforehand.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays! ♥

Raphael had absolutely no idea what he was even doing when he went down to the IT department one day. When he pushed through the door, it only took a few seconds for a certain dog’s head to pop up around the corner to one of the offices, barking at Raphael and pulling at the leash attached to his collar to probably keep him from running off again.

“Lance, what is—” Simon paused when he rolled around the corner, still in his chair and with a headset dangling around his neck. His eyes widened when he spotted Raphael and then his lips curled into an almost happy little smile that made Raphael simultaneously regret and praise his decision to go down here for absolutely no reason.

“Hey, Raphael, what are you doing here?” Simon wondered and got up from his chair, pushing it back into his office before walking up to Raphael after patting Lance’s head softly.

“I, uh, just wanted to,” he started, realising that he probably should have thought of  _ something _ to say before barging in here but apparently he had left the rational part of his brain at home for the day and felt unable to come up with an excuse.

Before he was able to finish his sentence in what would have been a surely awkward way, another person showed up to see what was going on and Raphael immediately regretted even coming to work today because for some reason he had forgotten that Stan worked in IT as well and there was no way he could stop the man from greeting him with—

“Oh, hey, boss. What do we owe the pleasure of your visit? You never come here.”

A moment of silence followed and Raphael didn’t have to look at Simon to know the other’s eyes were probably comically wide now. He sighed inwardly and it had been expected, sooner or later, that the other man would figure out who Raphael actually was.

“I figured I should change that and check what my employees are up to,” Raphael replied casually and Stan stared at him in wonder before shrugging and excusing himself because he had to get back to work.

“So...uh...boss, huh?” Simon asked into the awkward silence, shuffling his feet a little and averting his eyes to the floor. Raphael still caught the pink tinge of embarrassment on the other’s cheeks and felt unreasonably bad for making the other man uncomfortable, even though it was technically Simon’s own fault for not even knowing what his own boss looked like.

“Apparently so,” Raphael replied with a small shrug, suddenly feeling a little bit awkward for no reason. He watched the other man attentively and already regretted that Simon was now aware of his position—that would certainly change his whole attitude towards Raphael, of that he was sure. It had been kind of refreshing, the way Simon had talked to him the other few times because he hadn’t known he had his boss in front of him.

“Well, that—that’s certainly unexpected,” Simon said with a nervous little chuckle, raising a hand to rub his fingers over the nape of his neck.

It was obvious that neither of them quite knew what to say at this point and Raphael finally decided to get back up to his office because he had important calls to make anyway and Simon obviously didn’t feel comfortable about his company anymore. Raphael couldn’t quite tell why he actually felt disappointment about this outcome since he didn’t even really know Simon that well.

 

It was later that day, when the sun had long set and Raphael should have left hours ago, that there was a tentative knock at the door.

“Lily, I thought you left already,” Raphael called out instead of ‘come in’ because who else would it be than his assistant but when the door was carefully pushed open, it was actually Simon’s head peeking around the corner.

“Uh, hi,” the other man greeted sheepishly and then cursed when Lance squeezed through the door as well, tugging at his leash because he wanted to enter the office properly but when he didn’t succeed, the dog simply sat down and stared at Raphael.

“Did you get lost? Why are you still around?” Raphael wondered out loud, raising his eyebrows in confusion and putting his papers down on the table. He definitely hadn’t expected Simon to show up again, especially not in his office, but he couldn’t say he actually minded the surprise visit, even though he felt a little weary about finding out the reason.

“No, I didn’t—well, I kind of did because I wasn’t sure which one is your office”—Simon blushed a little and apparently hadn’t planned on admitting to that—”I wanted to...I was waiting for you.”

Raphael blinked, surprised, and that wasn’t the answer he had expected. “You were waiting for me?”

Now Simon’s lips quirked into the smallest hint of a smile at Raphael’s disbelieving sound and he pushed the door open a little further, taking a step into the huge office and glancing around curiously while he tried to seem casual.

“I wanted to ask if—I mean, you probably have a lot to do because you’re still here and working so I don’t know why I’m still here. I don’t want to keep you from your work.”

“How about you finish one sentence at a time?” Raphael suggested with a small frown when Simon interrupted his own sentence and he was pretty curious now about the other’s reasons. “You wanted to ask me—?”

The pink on Simon’ cheeks darkened a little bit and his gaze flickered around the room before it finally settled on Raphael, eyes slightly widened and hair a mess, as if he had been running his fingers through them and Raphael briefly wondered if the dark curls were as soft as they looked.

“If, maybe, you’d like to—and I fully understand if you don’t have the time or there’s some policy about the boss not associating with his employees—grab something to eat?”

Simon definitely still knew how to take him by surprise and Raphael couldn’t help but stare at him in wonder, unable to figure him out. Lance apparently decided that the humans’ conversation took way too long so he barked shortly and jumped up, wagging his tail and tugging at his leash in an attempt to get closer to the desk and therefor Raphael as well.

“I know it’s late already and this was a stupid idea anyway so—”

“No. No, it’s not a stupid idea,” Raphael heard himself say before he even really made up his mind of how to deal with this situation. Usually, he would tell the other man that he still had work to finish and that there was indeed no time for grabbing something to eat with Simon but for some reason he didn’t.

“I am quite hungry, actually,” he admitted and Raphael probably would have gone home after another hour, prepared a simple sandwich at home and then went to bed but getting a proper meal sounded like a much better idea right now. Maybe the prospect of some nice company helped along with his decision as well, though he wouldn’t admit that out loud if he could help it.

“You are?” Simon stared at him with wide eyes, clearly not having expected Raphael to agree to his suggestion but then his lips curled into one of the brightest smiles and that alone made it worth it. “That’s great. Not that being hungry is a great thing but...you know…”

Raphael snorted in amusement and scanned his desk with his eyes before deciding that all of this stuff could wait until the next day and then he pushed himself out of his chair. He grabbed his suit-jacket from the back of his chair and slipped it on. When he stepped around his desk, Lance barked happily and wagged his tail, clearly expecting some kind of greeting and Raphael raised an eyebrow in amusement before at least petting the dogs head briefly.

“So, where to?”

“I honestly don’t know. I didn’t expect to get this far,” Simon admitted with a crooked grin and still pink cheeks but his eyes shone with amusement when Raphael huffed out a laugh.

Raphael decided to take this as his cue to take the lead and since Lance was with them, they couldn’t exactly head to one of the restaurants he would usually decide on because there was no way Raphael would allow the dog to stay in his car—besides the fact that it would be a shitty thing to do anyway.

“I know a nice little diner we could go to and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind Lance as long as he behaves,” Raphael said while pushing the button to call the elevator and when he looked at Simon, the other was basically staring at him and then quickly averted his gaze, his cheeks gaining more colour again and it didn’t seem like the pink would disappear anytime soon. It was oddly endearing, really.


	4. Chapter 4

“Lance really likes you.” Simon grinned at Raphael, watching the way his dog’s head rested against the side of the other man’s leg while he was lying mostly underneath the table of the diner.

“Apparently he doesn’t think that bosses are terrible people,” Raphael replied and smirked when he saw the other man flush with embarrassment.

“I don’t think bosses are terrible people!”

“Right, you only think that about your own boss.”

Simon flailed a little, almost knocking his box with fries off the table in the process. Raphael raised his eyebrows in amusement and leant back, taking a sip of his soda.

“No, that was—that was obviously a misunderstanding. I didn’t know you are the boss and I thought you would be the usual kind of douchebag—some old fart who does nothing but work and thinks he’s something better than his employees.”

“Maybe I am that kind of boss?”

“You look pretty young for an old fart, though,” Simon pointed out jokingly but his cheeks were still pink from embarrassment and Raphael felt the unfamiliar urge to lean over the table and press his lips against the rosy skin, find out if it was as soft as it looked.

“You’re a real charmer, aren’t you?”

Raphael actually laughed out loud when Simon’s reactions were widening eyes and bright red cheeks. He definitely started enjoying to get the other man all flustered, it was an admittedly good look on Simon.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Simon, it’s okay,” Raphael interrupted with a chuckle and before he knew what he was doing, he reached across the table to place his hand on top of Simon’s, briefly brushing his fingertips over the back of the other’s hand before straightening and drawing his hand back, casually curling it around his drink and taking a sip of it.

It didn’t take much longer for their food to arrive and while Lancelot sat up, nose curiously in the air, silence settled over them when they started eating. Raphael was honestly surprised that Lance merely looked at them for a moment before he lay back down, not even trying to beg for food. The few dogs he had known back when he had been younger had all been quite poorly trained and never behaved during meals, always whining and begging for scraps.

* * *

“So...that was nice,” Simon grinned awkwardly, fiddling with Lancelot’s leash in his hand while they stood next to Raphael’s car in front of Simon’s place.

“Don’t hurt yourself with the generous compliments,” Raphael teased and then laughed when the other man softly shoved his shoulder, trying to glare at him but his eyes were a little too soft to actually pull it off.

“You may not be old but I think I’ll reconsider the terrible part of it,” Simon threatened, poking an accusing finger against the shoulder he had just pushed against but then his lips curled into a smile that made his eyes crinkle adorably and Raphael felt like he melted a little bit inside.

“Come on, I’m amazing and we both know it. Lance definitely knows it!” With that, Raphael directed his attention to the dog patiently sitting next to them on the sidewalk and Lance started wagging his tail at the mention of his name, whimpering softly and stretching his neck towards Raphael to silently ask to be pet.

Raphael bent down to do just that, patting the dog’s head and gently scratching his ear.

“Do you...maybe want to come in for...a coffee or something?” Simon stammered after watching the other man for a moment, smiling gently because Lance closed his eyes contently and leant into Raphael’s touch, clearly enjoying the attention.

“ _Or something_? My, such an offer...but, sorry, not today. I have a meeting bright and early tomorrow,” Raphael sighed and he honestly felt regret as soon as he said the words because he really did want to spend some more time with the other, despite having spent the past few hours together already. He suddenly wanted to know more about Simon, see where he lived and how, but he figured there would hopefully be more occasions for him to learn about all these things later.

“Oh, okay.” Simon didn’t do a very great job hiding his disappointment and Raphael felt his lips tug into a smile.

“Another time, then?”

“Another time,” Raphael agreed with a nod and when Simon said his goodbyes and turned around, he instinctively reached out and wrapped his fingers around the other’s wrist, stopping him from heading into the building. He tugged Simon closer and, before he ended up chickening out, pressed the lightest of kisses to the other man’s warm, soft cheek.

The dark blush creeping up to Simon's ears was reward enough and Raphael let go of him with a casual “See you at work tomorrow” before heading back to his car to drive to his own place. The whole way home he felt unable to wipe the stupid grin off his face and even the prospect of the early meeting with some of the more annoying business partners couldn't put a damper on his good mood.


End file.
